A tough one I could use some help with Please

[david_gr]

This is my first significant challenge.  I have had a few easy ones.  It looked fairly straight forward when I saw it in PhotoShelter.

Here is what I started with.
http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w97/david_gr/?action-view&current=BatsonL_5_5_8x10.jpg

Here is where I am: I cleaned up their faces, hair and the top of the photo as best I could.  I did some work on the hand I circled but I am not satisfied with it.
http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w97/david_gr/?action-view&current=BatsonL_5_5ques.jpg

(Hopefully, these pictures will show up.)

Here are things I sure could use some help with.

1. See the hand that is circled.  I don't have enough detail with the fingers to do more than I did.  There is nothing in the picture that I can copy. 

2.  Next is all the spots.  I have been smoothing them out with the clone and blur tools.  I am not sure using blur filters would be the best option.

3. The brown staining.  What is a good way to fix that and still have your corrections match the rest of the photo?

4.  I cropped out the bottom where there was a line.  I don't think it deletes anything significant.  What do you folks think?

Hopefully, I am not in over my head with this and you folks can help me out.   :crazy:  Thanks in advance for your advice, help, and patience.

David Gr  :)

(Now let's see if these pictures show up.  You have the links

[Kenny]

1. See the hand that is circled.  I don't have enough detail with the fingers to do more than I did.  There is nothing in the picture that I can copy.

I think the hand looks just fine. The way you did it blends in nicely and doesn't distract from the overall image.

2.  Next is all the spots.  I have been smoothing them out with the clone and blur tools.  I am not sure using blur filters would be the best option.

Try using the healing brush and see what results you get. It looks pretty good so far from what I can tell, though.

3. The brown staining.  What is a good way to fix that and still have your corrections match the rest of the photo?

I tried adjusting the levels and got a pretty good result. It left the whites with a weird color cast, so I tried using the sponge tool to desaturate just the white areas.

4.  I cropped out the bottom where there was a line.  I don't think it deletes anything significant.  What do you folks think?

I didn't even notice until you mentioned it. I think it's just fine.

Hopefully, I am not in over my head with this

No more than the rest of us  ;D


Hope this helps...

Kenny

[John]

fyi, photobucket should provide a snippet of code for embedding the image in forums... I tried editing it for you with the [img] tags, but the gallery must be set up as private.

so pick the code that Photobucket provides you with the [img] tags and you can post images in the forums.

[glennab]

Hi David

I think you're on a roll.  What you've done so far looks great.  Believe me, if you look through the forum you'lll find that many of us thought we were choosing a relatively painless restoration only to find that the enlarged, high res version was a total bear!  But what wonderful challenges!  All I can say otherwise is ditto to Kenny's remarks.  I doubt that you'll find an easy way to get  the spots out.  If you do, please post it IMMEDIATELY!

Glenna

[david_gr]

Thanks folks.  I needed the kind words and help.  :)

David Gr

[zapphnath]

Let's see if I can get your images to show, here:





Here's what I do to tackle those dots:  use the Patch Tool - zoom in really close and draw a selection around one little dot and drag to a "clean" area right beside the dot and release.  Repeat for each dot.  It's tedious, sure, but it gets the best results (for me).

[kstruve]

David,

You're doing a great job with this photo.  It's looking really good.  I think that once you get all the little spots cleaned up, your last order of business should be to do a color rebalance to remove some of the color casts.  This is a quickie I did with adjustment layers:



Kurt

[cmpentecost]

David,

This is looking really nice.  You have done a great job so far, and it appears you are about done.  The best thing to do sometimes, is to take a long break rest your eyes, and then come back and look at it again.  The owner of the photo will be thrilled with what you have done.

Christine

[david_gr]

Zapphnath,

Please tell me how you got the photos to show up. Give this old man step by step instructions. 

I am going to try your patch technique.  It may be what I have been looking for with those darn spots.

Thanks for the input.

David Gr

[Kenny]

Zapphnath,

Please tell me how you got the photos to show up. Give this old man step by step instructions. 

I am going to try your patch technique.  It may be what I have been looking for with those darn spots.

Thanks for the input.

David Gr

I made a video tutorial a couple weeks ago that might help  :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GTtHJxLluo


Kenny

[zapphnath]

David,

Photobucket provides you with all you need.  In your album, underneath of each image, you have three sets of code that you can copy-n-paste to get a link to that image.  The first one - URL link - will let you make a link to it, like you did in your original post, and the third one - IMG code - will post the image.

When I clicked on your link, I was taken to your album and was able to get the IMG code - simple as that.

The only difference between the two is the tags.  To make a link to an image show the actual image, it needs [ IMG ] at the beginning and [ /IMG ] at the end (without the spaces).  To see for yourself, copy-n-paste both codes into a .TXT document and compare them.

Hope that helps. :up:

[glennab]

Hi David

I only see one other thing besides what's already been discussed.  In Kurt's post where he did some color adjusting, it appears to me that the upper left corner, diagonally over about a quarter of the image, there's more severe fading.  You may have to adjust the whole image, make a layer mask  and add a little more contrast or color adjustment to just that area.


Glenna

[david_gr]

Zapphnath,

Thanks.  I see what you mean.  All you have to do is click on it and it automatically copies.  So easy, it's hard.  :)  I was almost there.  That was the last piece of the puzzle.

David Gr

[david_gr]

This is finally what I came up with.  I figure you all might want to see how it turned.  Thanks for all the help and suggestions. :)



This is my first tough one.  So I hope there is not too much that needs changing. :-\

David Gr

PS I finally figured out how get picture links in.  :up:

[GP]

David this looks great  :up:
But of curse you can't get away without some more nitpicking.... ^-^
You might not see it on your monitor, but to me it looks like the upper third of the picture has a blue cast, probably a reflection from the blue wall in the background. You could make a selection, feather it and adjust hue/saturation or a curves adjustment would work too.

Gerlinde  ::)